“Nothing in this world is a waste unless you consider it to be one!” – Manya Harsha
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 5: Have you ever heard of Onion Papers? Papers made out of onion peels? Garlic peels? Potato peels? If not, today we tell you the story of a young Sustainable Recycler who is battling a Waste management crisis through her Green Paper!
India, with around 1.3 billion population, on average every household in India generates around 300 grams of Vegetable waste daily. If this waste is properly utilized, we can do wonders! We have all come across bio enzymes and compost. But this is something totally new; an idea to generate paper every day from your daily kitchen waste.
Meet one such Sustainability Influencer, Manya Harsha, a 10-year-old Environment Activist from Bengaluru is a 6th grader at Vibgyor High BTM Bangalore. While the entire world got locked indoors, Manya was busy recycling the daily Kitchen waste into handmade Vegetable paper!
She kickstarted her experiments with “Everyday kitchen waste to Each Paper a day!” being her simple mantra.
“Born and brought up in Bangalore, I see the beautiful Garden city slowly turned down by heaps of garbage dumped on the roadside and how the quantity of waste is increasing every passing day has been a matter of huge concern. This scenario always had made me think for a permanent solution as to how the flower and plant waste can be utilized in an Eco-friendly manner,” explains Manya about the reason behind her innovation.
Coming down to the statistics, Manya says “8 trees are sacrificed for 1000 pounds of paper! Now with around 8-10 onion peels, I can make 2-3 A4 size papers. A 1/2 kg of Peas husk can make 3 A4 size sheets! 2 -3 babycorn husk makes around 2 A4 size sheets!
These colorful vegetable papers are just like any other handmade paper. You can write, draw, paint, fold and create art out of it.
“Instead of chopping trees for paper, let’s recycle the kitchen waste to eco-friendly vegetable paper. Let’s all together join hands to restore our earth” – Manya Harsha
Despite the lockdown, Manya’s Environment-friendly activities have never taken a setback. Be it, her Restore Our Earth Campaign, Strike against Plastic Campaign, Cleanup Drive at Markhonalli Dam & Varca beach; on this World Water Day, UN-Water has lauded the young girl’s efforts on their official Facebook page. She has been The Water Heroes awardee 2020 by the ministry of JAL Shakthi.
Manya is also the young author of Five Nature-themed books and a World Record Holder.
Divya Agarwal
